Mental Health Advocate, Jay MacDonald, spoke to our grade 9 students today. He had a huge impact in a very short period of time (as noted in the student feedback below). Please make sure to continue these conversations with your child(ren) at home. It was a very emotional day, and these topics are so important.Student testimonialsML: “Jay was amazing. I’m glad he came because he opened a lot of people’s eyes. I’m glad I got the opportunity to talk to him after one-on-one. His advice is definitely something people need to hear right now. I’m actually so glad that he knew all the latest trends, and he was really funny. ”

HC: “It was life changing. He said all the things I needed to hear. Plus he’s so hip and easy to talk to. I wish he was our school’s counselor. He’s just one of those people that you trust immediately. He needs to come back soon.”

Anonymous:“It was good, I like him. He can go from serious to funny and that’s good. When he was talking about his brother, my cousin did that kind of stuff so it’s still recent. I liked Jay, he was good. “Get off Tinder,” I liked that part. It was one of the presentations that I actually enjoyed, most of them are really boring. “

Anonymous:“It was really, really cool. I think it hit harder at the kids to understand what he was going through and his problems. It dealt with the kids that deal with what he used to face. It makes them feel like they’re not the only ones going through that kind of stuff. It was really cool to talk to him after and be more personal so he could share his story and what he had to overcome. I’d definitely like to see him again, if he had the opportunity to see his change it’d be really cool for not only him, but us. If he could see the impact he had on peoples lives, even in a short period of time it’d be really nice.”

Anonymous: “I thought your presentation was pretty awesome. It affected me after. Your presentation made me feel better about my autism, I felt like I was a burden to the people around me, after that I really grew formal with my autism and it’s something I can face now instead of hide.”

CF: “Instead of lecturing us about why it’s important and all that, he was connecting with us. I think it was good that he talked about some pretty serious things, and he made the room a safe space. I think that even after he left, it kind of showed our grade that we’re more there for each other than not. Like with the statistics, it showed me that when I’m going through that I’m not as alone as it seems. And also I appreciated that he tried to let us know that if you enter something with a positive attitude, you’re going to get more positive results. I loved his tattoos.”

Anonymous: “Jay was really nice. When I talked to him one on one, it felt like he cared and gave good advice to what I was saying. His presentation was one of the few that intrigued my classmates and myself. He touched on some taboo stuff that I feel needs to be heard and talked about. He made me feel better about my addictive personality and I feel that he definitely changed the atmosphere in ninth grade. I’d love to see him again and his tattoos are my favourite thing.”